


i wanted it to be you (i wanted it to be you so badly)

by wagonisonfire



Category: The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals - Team StarKid
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, F/M, Fluff, Original Character(s), cuteness ensues, emma is still a barista, emma’s nephew makes an appearance, paul is a call centre operator, this is inspired by sleepless in seattle and you’ve got mail
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-21
Updated: 2019-07-03
Packaged: 2020-01-23 16:00:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 11,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18553054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wagonisonfire/pseuds/wagonisonfire
Summary: Emma Perkins has no friends her own age.This changes after her nephew calls the loneliness helpline number from a flyer that was pushed through her mailbox.Finally, she has someone to talk to other than her, let’s say, eccentric Biology professor.





	1. Emma

If there’s one thing Emma Perkins didn’t want, it was kids. 

Sure, she loved her nephew, but he was a handful and this was one of the few instances she was grateful that Jane was the favourite so she didn’t have to look after Tommy all the time. Her parents had gone out of town for a summer vacation because they were “retired and that’s what retirement’s all about,” and, in doing so, they left Emma with a hyperactive nine year old for a week.

“Tommy,” She called out from the small kitchen in her apartment, “come and get your lunch!” She had carefully cut the crusts off the peanut butter and jelly sandwich she had made for him, as well as finding a Kit-Kat in her fridge and putting that on his plate too. For her own lunch, Emma had made the same, except she had couldn’t be bothered to cut her crusts, so she left them. After waiting for about five minutes, Emma started to get impatient.

“Tommy!” She bellowed, making sure the child heard her. As she waited for a response, she figured she might as well check her phone to see if any of her assignments for her second year at college had been posted so she could get a head start. She patted the pockets of the black hoodie she was wearing, only to find her phone was not there. She then checked her denim shorts for the phone, discovering it was not in any of her pockets. Beginning to get a bit frantic, Emma began to tear the kitchen apart to look for her phone. She checked the counter, the oven, the microwave and every single cupboard, but she was still empty handed. As she resigned herself to live as a hermit without a phone for the rest of her life, she heard Tommy giggle from her bedroom. _That little bastard,_ she thought. Emma raced down the corridor of her small apartment and threw open the door to her bedroom. Surrounded by Emma’s sheets, sat Tommy, absentmindedly chatting away on her phone, holding a flyer that Emma had gotten through her door a few days ago. Upon hearing the door slam against the bedroom wall, Tommy looked up. 

“Aunt Emma!” Tommy exclaimed, still keeping the phone to his ear, but gesturing for Emma to come closer. When she reached the boy, Emma looked at the flyer in his hand that read: “Feel lonely? Depressed? Angry? Need to vent? Call us and we’ll be here to listen” followed by a phone number. Great, not only was she very aware of the fact that her only friend at the moment was her eccentric Biology professor, but her nine year old nephew thought that Emma needed friends too. Emma tried to grab the phone out of the kid’s hand but he skilfully moved out of her way.

“Sorry, that’s just my aunt that I was telling you about,” Tommy turned to look at her, “Aunt Emma, I’ve been talking with this guy and he said that he’d be happy to keep you company when I have to go back to Grandma’s on Friday!” Emma looked at her nephew, who was using the megawatt smile she had seen him use on his grandmother to get his way, and she gestured for him to leave the room.

“Tommy, go and eat your lunch,” Emma ordered, “and while you’re at it, give me my phone back.” Tommy begrudgingly removed himself from the mountains of bedsheets he was bundled in and handed Emma the phone, without hanging up, before trudging out of the room. Emma stayed put and looked at her phone before putting it to her ear.

“Hi, sorry about that,” She apologised, using her best customer service voice, “My nephew is a bit of a handful.”

“No worries,” The man on the other end of the phone spoke, sounding relieved. “He wasn’t much trouble at all, he was more interesting to talk to than most of the calls I normally get.” This comment made Emma laugh, this poor guy probably had to deal with a lot of crap, and she couldn’t imagine a nine year old trying to find his thirty-something aunt a friend was exactly his normal Wednesday afternoon.

“I can imagine,” Emma replied, “He means well, my nephew,” She trailed off. She looked at the poster that had been discarded on the bed. “Look, I know he probably told you that I don’t have any friends -”

“Oh, no, he didn’t say anything like that,” The guy on the phone sounded like he was lying. Emma rolled her eyes so hard, she was pretty sure he could feel her gaze through the phone. Or understood that her silence was proof that she knew he was lying. “Okay, maybe he did.”

“Well, I have got friends, okay?” Emma stated, quite defensively. She did have friends, just not on this continent. “They’re in Guatemala. I know that sounds crazy but I moved back from Guatemala a couple of years ago and I haven’t really made any friends since I’ve been back in gloomy old Hatchetfield.” As she said this, she realised that she never really said any of this out loud before and Emma noticed how much of a loser she sounded.

“Look, Emma,” the guy on the phone spoke after a moment of silence, “I know it’s hard to make friends sometimes, life can get on top of you, if you ever need someone to talk to, just call that number on the poster - I’ll be here. Ask for Paul and I will talk to you about anything.” On the inside, Emma’s heart warmed at the thought of having someone other than Professor Hidgens or Tommy to talk to, but on the outside, Emma decided to have a bit of fun with this.

“Even to talk about how good I think Moana is?” She asked, her voice light and teasing, “I could literally go on for days.”

“And I,” Paul began, clearly matching Emma’s teasing mood, “could speak for months about how much I disliked Moana.”

“Alright, Paul,” Emma said, “I will take you up on that challenge.”

“Okay, I guess I’ll hear from you soon.” Paul stated, “Goodbye, Emma.”

“Bye, Paul.” Emma hung up the phone and headed back towards the kitchen to have lunch with her nephew, who she probably needed to thank for realising what she needed before she did.


	2. Paul

Paul liked his job at the call centre. He didn’t love it, but he didn’t hate it either. The best part of his job, however, was talking to people. His co-workers were always fun to talk to but he did have one favourite caller.

Ever since her nephew had called on her behalf a month ago, Emma had called Paul at work every other day and they spoke about everything and nothing. Paul found out that Emma was a barista, she usually called during her breaks at work, that she was studying Botany at college and that her best friend was her Biology professor. As Paul began to talk to Emma more, he found himself even more intrigued by her: he thought she was hilarious and despite her heavily sarcastic tone, she was very kind and fiercely protective. Every other day, Paul found himself waiting for Emma to call, and on the days she didn’t call, he spoke to his co-workers about her in between his other calls. The only one of his co-workers who hadn’t complained about it was Charlotte.

“It’s sweet,” she told him, as he sat tapping his fingers against his desk waiting anxiously for his next call, “She probably really appreciates how much you care, Paul.” On the other hand, his desk-mate, Ted, had had enough of Paul talking about his favourite caller.

“Look, Paul, I just want to get my paycheck and flirt with the barista who’s always on her phone at Beanie’s, okay? Your latte hotte -” The self-confessed sleazeball spoke in a bad Borat impression, “- is not who I’m thinking about. Hey, Charlotte!” Charlotte shuffled over to Paul and Ted’s joint desk on her office chair and Ted proceeded to ignore Paul so he could talk to Charlotte in a much lower volume than he’d used to call her over. Sometimes Paul wondered how someone who was as much of an asshole as Ted got a job at a call centre talking to lonely and potentially vulnerable people, but Paul figured that he must use a different tone of voice, or even a different personality, when working.

One particular Tuesday, whilst Paul was waiting to get a call from Emma, he was talking to an elderly woman called Linda, who liked to call the centre every week to tell them about the groceries she had bought. She was talking to Paul about how she had gotten some Cap’n Crunch on sale for her grandchildren who often came to stay with her. After listening for a few minutes more, Linda’s grandchildren called in on her so she hung up and he decided that he needed to stretch his legs.

“I’m going on a coffee run, does anyone want anything?” Paul asked, rising from his desk and looking around the office space. Bill was still talking with someone but he pointed to his desk and Paul made his way over whilst Bill scribbled down his coffee order. Paul picked up the post-it note that Bill had written on an examined the unusually long coffee order - who ordered a frappuccino with four different shots of syrup?

“Anyone else?” Paul looked around the room, waiting to see if anyone else wanted anything. He tapped Charlotte on the shoulder and whispered to ask if she wanted anything to which she shook her head no. As Paul began to make his way to the door, Ted seemingly appeared out of thin air.

“Are you going to Beanie’s?” Ted spoke from behind Paul, making him jump.

“Sorry, Ted, do you want to come?” Paul responded, hand on his heart in an attempt to calm himself.

“No, no, no,” Ted paused, looking away from Paul nonchalantly, “Actually, yes.”

“Okay.” Paul stated and left the office with Ted close behind him. The walk to Beanies was filled with small talk and Paul filling in Ted on what Linda has said in her weekly call.

“Cap’n Crunch is on sale?” Ted asked excitedly as the two men strolled down the sidewalk in the spring sunshine.

“Yep, better stock up now,” replied Paul in a teasing tone. As he chatted to Ted on the short walk about the callers they had spoken to that morning, Paul decided that, despite the sleazy character that he had created for himself, Ted was a good person when he wanted to be. He must be, otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to keep his job this long.

After walking straight past the crowded Starbucks, they opened the door to Beanie’s. Behind the counter, a petite woman stood with her hair up in a messy bun, cleaning the counter as she looked out into the almost empty café. She was pretty, Paul thought, no, beautiful. At moments like these, Paul wished he was more outgoing and that he would go and talk to her, but he didn’t. Ted gestured for Paul to go in front of him and order but Paul remained a few feet behind Ted and handed him Bill’s coffee order.

“Hi, welcome to Beanie’s, what can I get for you?” The barista asked, with a overly bright voice and a forced grin. For some reason he couldn’t put his finger on, Paul recognised her voice from somewhere. Ted began to recite Bill’s needlessly long order and Paul decided to examine the barista and her surroundings. She looked to be around his age, but he didn’t want to assume, and from where he was standing, he could see another girl in the same uniform behind her, on her phone. If Paul was assuming correctly, it looked like the barista talking to Ted was the only one who did any work in there. His mind wandered to Emma and whether she was at work or college right now. _I hope Emma hasn’t called whilst I’ve been gone,_ Paul thought to himself whilst Ted continued to give the barista his order. Paul always looked forward to Emma’s calls, if he was being completely honest, he had a small crush on her. She always knew what to say to make him laugh and Paul liked that about her. He considered, for a moment, if they were to ever meet in real life, would he would have the guts to ask her out? Paul shook the thought off and decided to pay attention to whatever Ted was saying to him. 

“- and then I told Charlotte just to break up with him!” Ted threw his hands in the air, expressing his annoyance at Charlotte not heeding his relationship advice, once again.

“Ted, you can’t force Charlotte to divorce her husband.” Paul told him reasonably. Ted shrugged him off as the barista called out their drinks. Both men went up to the counter to collect the drinks and as they did so, Paul glanced down at the barista’s nametag, out of curiosity. There, in cursive on the tag, read the name _Emma_. Paul froze momentarily: surely this couldn’t be _Emma_ Emma? No, Emma is a common enough name, there could be two Emmas who are baristas in this kind of area, maybe _Emma_ Emma worked at Starbucks. While Paul had been thinking himself into a frenzy, Ted had put a small tip in the jar and was moving his colleague towards the door.

“Okay, thanks, bye!” Emma the barista called after them, in what could only be described as a customer service voice. As soon as they were out of the coffee house, Paul stopped in his tracks and realised that he had heard the same goodbye before. 

It was _Emma_ Emma.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay so i really wanna write the next chapter so it should be up soon
> 
> also each chapter is going to alternate from emma and paul centric so the next chapter will be more emma centric


	3. Emma

At around two o’clock, Emma decided it was time to take her break. Nora had arrived and was making orders so Emma took that as a chance to go to the break room and call Paul. On her way, she grabbed a cold (and admittedly shitty) Danish, that she had begun to bite into as she pressed the contact “Paul Work” in her phone. By the time Emma had sat down in the break room, someone had picked up the phone.

“Hi, this is Charlotte, how are you today?” A familiar feminine voice spoke down the phone. Emma would quite often be put through to Charlotte when she called, they never spoke for long but from the way she spoke and how nicely she treated Emma, the barista imagined that she was one of those people that was impossible to hate because they were so sweet.

“Hey, Charlotte, is Paul there?” Emma replied, saying a little prayer to any God that would listen that Paul wasn’t busy with another caller. Emma took a slow bite out of her Danish whilst she waited for Charlotte to see if Paul was busy.

“Hi Emma, I’ll put you through to him now.” Charlotte stated. For a moment, Emma wondered how she knew her name but figured she must have mentioned it to her one of the other times she had called.

“Hey Emma,” Paul’s voice chimed through the cell phone speaker, sounding relieved, although Emma couldn’t work out why.

“Hi Paul, had a busy day?” She asked, curious about why he sounded so pleased to be alleviated from what he was doing before she called.

“Not really,” Paul replied, “I had time to go on a short coffee break earlier so I haven’t exactly been buried in work - my boss wouldn’t have let me have an extra little break otherwise.”

“Who did you speak to today?” Emma inquired, she hoped he wasn’t working too hard, although if he had been on a coffee break, he was probably fine. As Emma listened to Paul talk about callers he’d had that day, Emma pondered about what it might be like to work in Paul’s office. She had never had an office job before, even in Guatemala, she had been a barista and had been since high school. Emma often thought about the kind of job she’d be doing if she went to college straight out of high school, like Jane did. Realising she hadn’t been paying much attention to what Paul had been talking about, Emma quickly changed her focus from her late sister to the sweet man on the other end of the phone.

“- and finally,” Emma felt a bit guilty that she hadn’t been focused on everything else Paul had been saying, “Linda got her grandkids PopTarts and the traditional Cap’n Crunch for when they stay over this week.”

“Good for Linda,” Emma mused earnestly. For some unknown reason, she actually really liked hearing about Linda’s grocery shopping. As she imagined Linda walking around the grocery store, she remembered something. “Paul!”

“Yes?” Paul answered, his wince of shock from her sudden outburst was clear in his voice.

“Don’t let me forget to go to the grocery store for Professor Hidgens before I hang up!” Emma exclaimed, before she forgot the favour all together.

“I won’t,” Paul promised and after a small pause, he broke the silence, “Do you mind if I ask you a bit of a personal question?” 

Upon hearing this, Emma’s heart rate skyrocketed. What could he have to ask? Did he not want to take her calls anymore? Did he want her to get _his_ groceries? Emma attempted to remain composed on the outside whilst her mind was in a frenzy.

“Sure, Paul, what is it?” _Well done, Emma._ She told herself, very proud of how calm she was coming across. 

“Is it normal for college students nowadays to buy their professor’s groceries for them?” Once she heard Paul’s question, Emma laughed in relief, and then a little at herself for getting so worried about what he was going to say.

“Probably not,” she chuckled, “but Professor Hidgens isn’t your average professor, I suppose.”

“In what way?” Paul quizzed her before she could continue, clearly intrigued by Emma’s relationship with her professor.

“Well, for starters, he lives in a bunker on the edge of town, just in case of an apocalypse,” Emma started.

“I know where I’m going if I’m ever around during some kind of zombie apocalypse then,” Paul gave a small chortle from the other end of the receiver. The sound was like music to Emma’s ears, Paul’s laugh was one of those songs that you can’t help but sing along to, so Emma giggled with him.

“You’re not the only one,” Emma continued, “Anyway, sometimes he gets quite caught up in his research so we made a deal that if I took him groceries once a week, he would give me extra tutoring.” 

“That sounds like a pretty neat deal,” Paul commented, making Emma smile. When Emma thought about who her friends were, the first two people she thought of were Professor Hidgens and Paul. She decided that she liked it that way. 

“Yeah, it works for us,” Emma agreed, “How’s work? Is there any office drama I’m missing?”

“Well, don’t let him know I told you this but,” Paul lowered his voice and paused for a few moments, presumably looking around his office to check the person he was talking about was not present. In the small silence, Emma clung onto her phone in anticipation, “we’re planning a surprise Mamma Mia themed birthday party for Bill.”

“Aw, you guys are so cute,” Emma gushed, “I bet my co-workers don’t even know when my birthday is.”

“Don’t get too sad that you’re missing out,” said Paul, “you did hear me mention that it was _Mamma Mia_ themed?” The disgust was clear in his voice as he mentioned the name of the musical.

“He loves it that much, huh?” Emma laughed, partly due to Paul’s disgust at the mention of any musical, which was rather like a toddler being forced to eat their vegetables, and partly that a grown man was having a Mamma Mia themed birthday party.

“He said it was better than Hamilton,” Paul stated, “and I’m no expert on musical theatre or anything, but I’m pretty sure Hamilton won a Pulitzer.” Emma chuckled and quickly took her phone away from her face to check the time. 

“I’m so sorry, Paul, I’ve gotta run otherwise my manager is probably going to add another item on her list of reasons why she hates me.” Emma apologised, not wanting her conversation with Paul to end.

“No worries, Emma,” comforted Paul, he was awfully good at that, “I’ll speak to you the day after tomorrow.” Emma decided, at exactly that moment, she didn’t want to wait a whole day without talking to him, so she took a leap of faith.

“Uh, Paul,” Emma began before pausing. Was this a good idea? She had begun to doubt herself before deciding to be brave and brush her doubts aside. “I’m going to call tomorrow, if that’s all right?”

“That’s more than all right by me,” Paul told her honestly, “In that case, I’ll speak to you tomorrow.”

“Speak to you tomorrow, Paul, bye!” Emma hung up her phone and headed back to the kitchen, where she was sure they were eagerly awaiting her arrival. 

The rest of Emma’s shift drifted by, except there was one asshole who decided to yell at her for making their coffee slowly, even though it was quite clear that she was the only barista who was actually doing any work. The second Emma clocked out she remembered that she had to get Professor Hidgens’ groceries and was really glad she spoke to Paul about it earlier, otherwise it would have completely slipped her mind. 

As Emma was perusing the aisles of the grocery store, looking for some cereal that the professor would eat, she noticed that there was a man standing next to her, picking up a box of Cap’n Crunch. She turned quickly out of habit, and realised she had served him that day. He was cute, she decided. He had blue eyes that seemed to twinkle whenever they moved and she wished that she could see them more often. She was also very glad, however, that he wasn’t with his friend who had actually done the ordering when he’d been in Beanie’s, as his friend was a bit of a creep and came on rather strong - even whilst ordering drinks. Unsure if she should say something to him, Emma flashed the guy a quick smile and decided to get the professor some Cap’n Crunch as well. It wasn’t exactly what he would normally eat, but if he argued, Emma decided she would just pull the “it was on sale” card. The guy smiled back at her, and it made the rest of his face light up. Emma was definitely blushing and definitely spending too long looking at this man’s face. She gave him a small wave and a little thumbs up before exiting the aisle, cursing herself for her embarrassing behaviour. 

She paid for Hidgens’ groceries and made her way to his bunker. When Emma reached the gates of Hidgens’ fortress, she pressed and held the buzzer. This was her non-verbal signal to the professor that it was her, with his groceries. The gates opened, and she made her way inside.

“Emma, I’m in the lab!” She heard the professor call from inside the house. She left the groceries in his kitchen and made her way to the lab. As she entered, she saw Professor Hidgens hunched over a microscope, frantically dictating notes to his AI. 

“Hi Professor,” Emma greeted him, and sat on the stool the other side of the lab table. Upon hearing her voice in the same room as him, the professor looked up and smiled. 

“Hello Emma, I trust that your work at that cafe wasn’t too busy,” He acknowledged her uniform that she hadn’t bothered to change out of when her shift ended. “And I thought I asked you to call me Henry when we weren’t in class.”

“Sorry, _Henry_ ,” Emma teased the older man who had become a little like a father figure to her, since her parents decided they only wanted to talk to Emma when they needed her to do something. “Work was fine, there was this cute guy who came in at around noon and that was probably the highlight of my day. So, in general, rather uneventful.”

“A cute guy?” The professor asked, raising an eyebrow. “What about that fellow you’re always talking to me about? The one on the phone?”

“Oh, Paul?” Emma was confused. She didn’t have a crush on Paul, that would be ridiculous. They hadn’t even met. 

“Yes, that’s the one.” Hidgens uttered, returning to his microscope.

“I never said anything about thinking Paul is cute,” Emma protested. Professor Hidgens lifted his head from the microscope and put on his reading glasses before getting one of his textbooks off the shelf and opening it expertly to the exact page he needed and beginning to read.

“You didn’t have to, dear.” Henry stated calmly, without looking up and turning the page in his textbook.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lol this one is a bit longer than the other two but i really REALLY wanted to introduce hidgens in this chapter and i got a bit carried away with paul and emma clearly needing another meet-cute because i’m a little bit out of control but never mind hope you like it, will post the next chapter soon x


	4. Paul

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay some warning: this chapter is filler
> 
> like nothing but filler
> 
> also i don't think i write from paul's perspective very well, i'm much more confident writing emma, so apologies for my writing being clunky af and probably a bit ooc

Planning a Mamma Mia themed birthday party was harder than Paul thought. Despite accidentally agreeing to find decorations for Bill’s party, Paul had left work with a spring in his step, remembering that he wouldn’t have to wait another whole day to speak to Emma again. That may have sounded extremely sappy, but he didn’t care. Paul headed to the grocery store to pick up some supplies and a copy of the movie, he figured that watching the movie might help him find decorations. As soon as Paul entered the store, he remembered Linda telling him about the sale on Cap’n Crunch. Once he had picked up the movie and cleared out the crafts aisle and the party aisle, he decided to make his way to the cereal and grab some Cap’n Crunch to fuel any kind of creativity he could muster.

As he walked around the corner into the cereal aisle, he saw none other than Emma. Emma from Beanie’s, Emma that he was looking forward to getting a call from tomorrow. _Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay._ Paul thought, _Emma doesn’t know that you’re you, Paul, and she doesn’t have to, you just don’t need to say anything. Say nothing._ Paul was rather proud of his impromptu plan, so he walked down the aisle like Emma wasn’t there, like he wasn’t internally having a minor panic. Casually looking at the boxes of cereal that lined the shelves, Paul had finally come across the boxes of Cap’n Crunch and he reached out and grabbed a box. As he did so, he felt something move next to him and he paused. He turned his head, at what he hoped came across as a normal speed, to look at the petite barista stood next to him. She gave him a small smile, as she leant forward to get a box of Cap’n Crunch as well. Paul returned the smile as Emma looked back at him, before she shuffled towards the checkout, giving Paul a small wave and a thumbs up, making Paul chuckle to himself as he turned around to go to the dairy section and grab some milk for his cereal.

Once he was back at his small apartment, Paul put the movie on, got a bowl of Cap’n Crunch and started working on the party. He wasn’t all that sure what the plot of Mamma Mia was, all he knew was that it was somehow related to ABBA. Paul resigned himself to the first 20 minutes of the movie before turning it off and looking at the supplies he had in front of him. He had grabbed streamers of all different colours, but he decided that the best colours to use would probably be blue and white, since he had gathered that the musical was set in Greece. _Okay, what else?_ Paul asked himself. He thought on it a while, until a brilliant idea hit him and he picked up his phone and tapped the contact he needed.

“Uncle Paul?” Alice’s voice chimed down the phone, the surprise clear in her voice, “Is everything okay?” Alice was Bill’s daughter: Paul and Bill had been best friends before Alice was even born and he babysat her when Bill went out with his then wife. Alice was literally like a niece to him: he’d been at all her childhood birthday parties, he’d been there to support her and Bill when Bill and his wife went through their divorce, and he’d been there when Alice came out, when he told her that he would always support her, no matter who she wanted to date. Alice cried, Paul cried and then Bill cried, and Paul took them all out for ice cream, like any good honorary uncle would. 

“Hey, Alice, yes, everything’s fine,” Paul greeted her, in an attempt to calm her nerves, “The guys at the office and I are planning a surprise party for your dad’s birthday next week, and it’s _Mamma Mia_ themed.” Alice chuckled down the phone, and if Paul heard correctly, he could hear someone else laugh too.

“That’s classic Dad,” Alice replied, still laughing with - who Paul assumed was - Deb, Alice’s girlfriend, “Let me guess, you have no idea what Mamma Mia is about?”

“How’d you know?” Paul sighed, he thought he was getting better at saying ‘Mamma Mia’ without sounding like he wanted to die, but he supposed that he must be an even worse actor than he thought. “I have been tasked with decoration, and all I know is that it’s set in Greece with ABBA music.”

“Okay, Uncle Paul,” Alice began, “You’re probably going to want to make notes, have you got a pen?” Paul scrambled around his living room for a pen.

“All right, Alice, go!” Paul commanded, pen and notebook at the ready. 

“So, it’s set in Greece, you know that, so I think a good colour scheme would be blue, white and silver,” Alice suggested as Paul rapidly took notes with his phone pressed between his shoulder and his cheek, “Also, the ABBA element would probably call for sequins.” Paul nearly retched, sequins and musicals went hand in hand. He should have expected it, really.

“Okay, sequins, white, blue and silver - what else?” Paul inquired, swallowing his pride and disgust, remembering he was doing this for Bill.

After around an hour of talking to Alice, and Deb, who decided to intervene when Alice had gotten the names of one of the characters wrong, Paul felt as though he had a solid plan for Bill’s party. As he got ready to go to bed, he couldn’t help but wish he had someone to share his day with. Someone to talk to about his day, his thoughts, anything. Laying in bed, Paul’s thoughts moved from anyone to share his day with, to one particular person to share his day with. Emma. All he had to do was introduce himself, in person, next time he went to Beanie’s. That’s when he would say it. He would say “Hi Emma, I’m Paul. From the call centre.” Or maybe he wouldn't. He didn’t want to make Emma uncomfortable, and realised that perhaps that plan was a bit much. Maybe, when she called tomorrow he would ask which coffee place she worked at. They were definitely friends by this point, so he didn’t think it would be too weird of him to ask. Maybe he should just take Bill with him next time he goes to Beanie’s. No, Bill would get too excited, maybe Charlotte was a better idea. That was a much better plan. He decided that tomorrow, after Emma’s call, he would go to Beanie’s with Charlotte and have Charlotte bring up the fact that he had been talking to someone called Emma who was also a barista. Yes, that would work. Paul drifted off to sleep, thinking about all the different ways tomorrow could go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay first off i wanna apologise for talking about cap'n crunch a g a i n. clearly, my british ass subconsciously obsessed with it - i've never even tried it, it was just the first cereal that popped into my head and i wanna apologise that i keep bringing up cap'n crunch.
> 
> second of all, holy crap there's like no dialogue in this chapter and it is Very Bad but i am so glad that i introduced alice and deb because honestly, we stan
> 
> next chapter should be up soon! this fic is drawing to an end... but let's be real i will probably try and write paul/emma one shots or ficlets inspired by romcoms because lol i love paul and emma and i love romcoms


	5. Emma

Emma was on the opening shift the following morning. As she was setting up the cafe, turning on the espresso machine and putting out pastries, she wondered whether the guy who came in yesterday would come in again today. He was a regular, but he was never the one who ordered, it was always his friends and co-workers. _Maybe he was shy_ , she thought as she walked to the door of Beanie’s flipping the sign from closed to open. The first hour of business was always the slowest, Beanie’s opened at 8am, so most people went to the Starbucks down the street in the early morning. Emma leant on the counter by the cash register and waited for the first customer of the day. Whilst she waited, she was trying to figure out how early was too early to call Paul. _Fuck it,_ she thought, _it’s empty and Nora doesn’t get in for another two hours_. Emma looked outside the cafe door quickly to see a very large line outside of the Starbucks and nobody seemed at all interested in coming into Beanie’s so Emma figured she had at least half an hour to call Paul. As the phone rang, she thought about she was going to say to Paul. Part of her wanted to tell him about the guy she saw in Beanie’s and at the store the day before. _Eh, I’ll wing it,_ she thought. 

“Hello, this is Paul, how are you today?” Paul answered the phone using the assigned introduction the company had given to them. Emma had heard that introduction so many times and those words gave Emma a sense of security that she hadn’t been aware of.

“Hey, Paul, it’s Emma.” She informed him, feeling a little bit odd, maybe it was because she was calling him so early.

“Emma! This is a bit early for you,” Paul commented teasingly, with a small chuckle.

“Yeah, I’m on the open and it’s absolutely dead right now, so I thought I would call you.” As Emma explained her reasons out loud, she couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed that she had broken their unwritten rule of calling after midday.

“Where do you work? It’s not exactly normal for a coffee shop to be empty at 8am.” Paul asked, Emma considered it to be a fair question.

“Beanie’s, downtown?” Emma hoped Paul knew where she was talking about, “They just opened up a Starbucks down the street, and they open up shop two hours before we do so everyone forgets we’re open for an hour or two.”

“I know Beanie’s! It’s just down the block from our office, actually,” Paul explained, “Why would they build a Starbucks down the street from another coffee shop?”

“Maybe so people don’t have to drink our shitty coffee and eat our cold pastries?” Emma suggested with a grin, “How is the party prep going?”

“Ugh,” Paul sighed down the phone, “Let’s just say I am never planning any kind of party, musical themed or not, ever again.” Emma’s gut instinct was to laugh, if there was anything she knew: it was that Paul was probably the most melodramatic person she’d ever met.

“I’m sure you’re doing a better job than you think.” She reassured him, “Also, side question: would you rather run at a hundred miles an hour or fly at ten?”

“Oh, run at a hundred, easily.” Paul responded, “How about you?” The pair chatted and exchanged would you rather questions for a while, before Emma realised Nora would be at work in an hour and there was virtually no line outside Starbucks.

“Oh my god, Paul, I gotta go, I’m so sorry, my customer senses are tingling,” Emma apologised down the phone, hoping Paul wouldn’t mind that she had to end the call so quickly.

“It’s okay, Emma. You serve those customers and I’ll speak to you soon,” Paul chirped hopefully, making Emma feel much less guilty for having to actually go and do her job.

“Okay, Paul, I’ll speak to you soon.” Emma pressed the hang up button as the first customer of the day walked through the door.

“Hi, welcome to Beanie’s, what can I get for you?” was all Emma said for about three hours. Sure, Nora came in and was helping but she definitely wasn’t attempting to make any conversation with Emma, probably because of the long mental list Nora had clearly made of all the things Emma had ever done wrong. As Emma handed an iced latte with far too many pumps of syrup to a rather rude and impatient man, she glanced at the line. _Oh crap,_ she thought, the guy waiting behind him was the cute guy from the day before and the grocery store. _Okay, Emma, be cool,_ she told herself, not that it would be much use now.

“I got an easy one for you, just a cup of black coffee.” The guy ordered when he got to the counter. _Huh,_ the barista thought, _his voice sounds familiar._ She decided not to overthink it, and in her work routine, put the coffee through the cash register. 

“Okay, that’ll be $3.20 please,” Emma informed him, only looking up from the cash register once she’d finished. As she looked the guy in the face, she realised where she knew his voice from. It was Paul’s voice, she was sure of it. She wanted to talk to him and make sure it was definitely Paul before assuming it was. Whilst she was mulling over this plan, Maybe-Paul was holding out the money for his coffee and she took it. “Oh my god, I’m completely daydreaming, thank you!”

“Don’t worry about it, Emma.” Maybe-Paul said, with a small smile, which was far too cute in Emma’s personal opinion. As she made his coffee, she wondered how Maybe-Paul knew her name, then realised she had a name tag on, so she decided to make conversation.

“I see you in here a lot, do you work nearby?” Emma questioned nonchalantly, glancing Maybe-Paul’s way but focusing mainly on the coffee. 

“Uh, yeah, I work at a call centre about a block away,” Maybe-Paul confided. _Okay,_ Emma thought, _there probably aren’t that many call centres in Hatchetfield, but I still can’t definitely tell it’s him._ She decided to be a bit bold, as she presented his coffee.

“Here you go,” Emma presented Maybe-Paul with the coffee and paused so he could tell her his name.

“Paul,” he informed her, taking the coffee with a smile. As he was about to leave, Emma took another leap of faith.

“Paul, wait a second,” Emma called after him, and he returned to the counter. “Um, this is probably going to sound a bit strange, but do you have a regular caller with the same name as me?” Paul blushed, as if he was caught doing something he shouldn’t have.

“Uh, yes,” he hesitated, looking down at the floor before looking up to see a mixture of happiness and relief on Emma’s face.

“Okay, so this is going to sound a tiny bit crazy, but I am _that_ Emma,” She let out a breath she hadn’t noticed she was holding, “When you ordered, I recognised your voice from somewhere and I didn’t realise where from until now, and I’m about to take my break, so if you’re on a break as well, do you want to, maybe, go somewhere that doesn’t serve shitty pastries?” Paul went to open his mouth in response, but Emma continued.

“I understand if you don’t want to, I mean you’re a pretty shy guy, you told me on the phone and that kinda creepy co-worker normally comes with you and orders, so if you don’t wan-” Paul interrupted the rambling barista.

“Emma, I’d love to.” He told her, sincerely.

“Okay, great. Let me just leave my apron, I’ll be back and we’ll go.” Emma smiled, before calling behind her to Nora, “Nora!”

“What?” Her boss responded grumpily.

“I’m going on my break, I’ll be back in a half hour!” Emma stated, hanging up her apron. She turned around and joined Paul without waiting for a reply from Nora.

“Thanks for giving me an excuse to get out of there,” Emma smiled up at Paul as they walked down the street, “Nora was giving me the silent treatment all morning.”

“Do you know why she hates you so much?” Paul asked earnestly, to which Emma shook her head. They were approaching a corner store and Emma made her way in, Paul following behind her. 

“I have absolutely no idea,” Emma continued, browsing the selection of chips that they had, “I think she’s mentally made a list of everything I’ve done wrong ever.” The barista laughed, picking up a bag of chips and heading to the checkout. 

“She does seem like the type to remember every bad thing about someone,” Paul commented, whilst Emma paid for her chips.

“Right?” Emma declared in agreement, “Shall we go and sit in the park? It’s a nice day, so the likelihood of completely ruining my work uniform with mud is low.” 

“Sure,” Paul answered, and they began to walk towards the park.

“Oh, by the way, Paul, I meant to ask,” Emma hesitated before actually asking the question she had, trying to come up with a way to word it that couldn’t be taken offensively, “how come you came to Beanie’s alone today? Not that you’re incapable of coming in on your own, just that there’s normally a co-worker, or friend, with you.”

“Well,” Paul began, “I asked around in the office if anyone wanted to come with, but they were all taking calls, and my one co-worker who wasn’t on the phone, Charlotte, was only doing paperwork today because she’s sick. I’m pretty sure that Mr Davidson, my boss, is gonna send her home for the rest of the day.”

“Aw, can you make sure to tell Charlotte to get better soon from me?” Emma requested, “Only because, when I call, I quite often get put through to Charlotte and she seems really sweet, from when I’ve spoken to her.”

“Okay,” Paul replied, “Oh, by the way, I asked the office some of your would you rather questions and they wanted me to pass on their answers to you.” He smiled at the barista as they sat down on the park bench.

“Okay, Paul, hit me with it.” Emma spoke animatedly. 

“Well, Ted, he’s the kind of creepy guy I came in with yesterday, said that he would fly at ten miles per hour and that he would have feet for hands,” Emma _had_ to interrupt there.

“That’s just the wrong answer, why would you have feet for hands when you could have hands for feet?” Emma exclaimed, “For starters, you would only need to buy, like, kids’ shoes, so think of the money you’d save and also think of all the things you could pick up!”

“Exactly, that’s what I said,” Paul agreed, “Bill also said that he would fly at ten miles per hour but he would have hands for feet.”

“Finally, one of your friends is making sense!” Emma declared, “those are both valid and correct answers.”

“Hey, I gave good answers,” Paul defended himself and his would you rather answers.

“Paul, why would you want to run at a hundred miles an hour when you have the option to fly?” Emma stated, she made it sound like a question but her tone indicated that she didn’t want an answer.

“Fair point,” Paul acknowledged. The two sat on the bench for another twenty minutes before Emma had to go back to work. On their way back to Beanie’s, they talked about Bill’s Mamma Mia birthday party.

“So, it’s a surprise party?” Emma asked, looking up at the tall man walking alongside her.

“Yeah,” Paul answered, “But Bill definitely knows that something’s going on. I was in the process of ordering a life-size cardboard cutout of Meryl Streep off the internet earlier, when Bill walked over to my desk and I had to immediately shut the browser, which can’t have looked good.”

“That’s true,” Emma noted, “Only really shifty people close their browsers at work.” She laughed, causing Paul to laugh too. As they approached Beanie’s, they both began to walk slower, not wanting their little date, or whatever it was, to end.

“Um, Emma?” Paul spoke up after a short silence and stopping just before the Beanie’s window.

“Yeah?” Emma replied, stopping with him.

“I was just wondering whether you would like to, you obviously don’t have to if you don’t want to but I’m pretty sure Bill wouldn’t mind, come to Bill’s party with me?”

“Are you sure?” Emma responded, “I wouldn’t want to intrude if it’s like an everyone at work thing.”

“No, I’m sure, Charlotte and Ted have both been telling me that the second I met you in person to introduce you to them properly because they want to know who this barista I talk about all the time is.” Paul explained, “Okay, that last part was mostly Ted, but Charlotte definitely wants to meet you.”

“Oh, okay. Sure, I’ll come, as long as it’s not a costume party.” Emma finally answered.

“It won’t be,” Paul assured her, “I organised it and I hate costumes.” Paul chuckled and Emma laughed with him. It was nice talking to Paul face to face, she decided.

“All right, I really should go back in,” Emma told Paul sadly, “but would it be okay if I got your normal number? Just so I can, you know, text you, instead of call you at work whenever I need you.”

“Sure,” Paul said, handing over his phone to Emma, who made a contact for herself and proceeded to text herself so she had Paul’s number. 

“Okay, Paul, I’ll text you later, I’ve gotta go in now otherwise both Zoey and Nora will murder me, bye!” Emma spoke as she began to walk away from Paul and back into the coffee shop. Once she made it behind the counter, she put her apron back on and just thought about what had happened in the last forty five minutes. 

_Damn, she had a lot to tell Professor Hidgens._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lol sorry this took a while for me to upload, i just wanted to write something better than the last chapter which was Not My Best
> 
> this one is twice the length of the last chapter and honestly i hope y’all enjoy it
> 
> the next chapter will be the last but i am definitely going to write some more paul/emma because I. LOVE. THEM.
> 
> update: 16th may 2019 - hello friends sorry i haven’t updated this in like a month i have exams and my last one is the 23rd so hopefully after that’s done i will finish this fic!


	6. Paul

Paul received a text from Emma that evening. Then another, and another.

Emma: hey paul, i just realised that i didn’t ask you when the party was?  
Emma: like i should still be able to come, i can book that day off and everything  
Emma: but it’s probably a good idea to know when it is

Paul smiled at his phone, something he had found himself doing a lot that afternoon. He replied.

Paul: It’s next Saturday, is that enough notice to get the day off?

Emma must have had her phone in her hand because she answered almost immediately. 

Emma: that’s my day off anyway, so i’ll be there!

Paul mentally cheered, and continued with his evening routine of getting ready for bed, with the exciting addition of intermittently texting Emma. As Paul laid in bed that night, texting Emma, he thought back to when he first took that phone call from her nephew. No one could have imagined, especially not Paul, that a month or so down the line he would be going to a party with the aunt who “had no friends except her professor.” He never would have thought that Emma would be interested in him, he was very shy in real life situations, but something about Emma made him feel at ease, like he didn’t have to try and say the right thing, he could say anything to her and not worry about every possible consequence. Paul fell asleep peacefully that night, especially in comparison to the night before.

Over the week leading up to the party, Emma and Paul continued to text each other. The two communicated almost constantly, resulting in Paul having some rather embarrassing conversations with clients because he was distracted by a meme that Emma had sent him. Paul had quite often woken up to “good morning” texts from Emma, who began work before he did, and he always made sure to text Emma “good night” before he went to sleep. The day of the party approached, and like usual, Paul woke up to a text from Emma.

Emma: morning, this is the last time i’m checking, promise, it definitely isn’t a costume party right?

Paul grinned and laughed a little, Emma had asked a minimum of five times whether the party was a costume party - it was not.

Paul: It’s definitely not a costume party, do you want me to pick you up tonight?

Emma answered in the same way as she usually did, extremely fast. 

Emma: yes please, here’s my address  
Emma: what time? like 7?

Paul made a note to look up Emma’s address on Google Maps so he knew where he was going to when he picked her up later that day whilst typing a reply.

Paul: Yeah, 7, is that okay with you?

Emma responded with the sunglasses emoji and the thumbs up emoji, so Paul assumed that meant she was happy with that plan. Paul spent the rest of his day, before picking up Emma, getting ready for the party. He was mostly worrying about making sure Bill would be surprised when he walked into the office - Paul had somehow managed to get Mr. Davidson to let him hire out the office space for Bill’s party, to this day Paul had no idea how he had done it. The plan to get Bill into the office was simple, Alice was going to be at her Dad’s with Deb, Paul was going to text Alice once everyone had arrived at the office, Alice would tell Bill that he needed to go into work for some reason and just like that: a surprise party is born. 

After an afternoon of making sure everything logistically was going to work, Paul began to get ready to pick up Emma. He was going to get to her apartment for seven o’clock on the dot, he had to be at the office before everyone else so he could meet Charlotte to put the decorations up and double check that everyone got there before Bill, Alice and Deb did. Paul stood and looked at himself in the mirror, he had decided on wearing a button-down shirt and nice pants - it was a party after all, he couldn’t just turn up in jeans - but he was debating on whether or not he should wear a tie. After a solid fifteen minutes of analysing his outfit, Paul chose not to wear a tie as it would look too much like he was going to work that way, and this was a party, parties are fun. Once Paul had taken a quick final look in the mirror, he grabbed his keys and left for Emma’s.

After around ten minutes of driving through apartment buildings, Paul found Emma’s. He looked at the buzzer system and found her apartment number and gave the button next to it a light press. Emma’s hurried voice erupted from the small speaker in the wall.

“Hey Paul, I’ll be down in a sec, I just have to put my sneakers on and I’ll be there.” Paul chuckled to himself and leaned on the wall of Emma’s apartment building as he waited for the petite barista. Emma emerged from the door of the building only a few minutes later.

“This isn’t too casual, is it?” She asked, slightly out of breath, from - Paul supposed - running down the stairs of the tall building. Paul looked at her outfit which consisted of some patterned shorts and a shirt in a matching print.

“It’s perfect, Em, don’t worry,” He reassured her, “Let’s get going, shall we?” Paul started walking towards his car, Emma following swiftly after. Upon reaching his car, Paul opened his passenger side door and gestured for Emma to get in the vehicle.

“Why thank you, kind sir,” Emma spoke with an exaggerated English accent before she carefully clambered in. Paul quickly opened his own door and climbed before replying in a matching accent.

“You are most welcome, milady,” The pair giggled as Paul manoeuvred the car away from Emma’s apartment and towards the office building.

The pair travelled in content silence, the journey from Emma’s to the office was short, and as they passed Beanie’s, Emma’s gaze focused on the coffee house and she couldn’t help but cackle a bit to herself.

“Uh, Emma, you okay?” Paul spoke from the driver’s seat, causing Emma to snap out of her focus on the café. 

“What? Yeah, I’m fine, I just saw that Zoey was on the closing shift with Nora, and I am so glad that I don’t have to be there right now.” Emma explained, a grin of relief present on her face.

“Oh, I see,” Paul chuckled, understandingly. It was not very long after that moment that the two of them arrived at Paul’s office building. The pair chatted as they stepped into the elevator, going up to Paul’s floor. The elevator doors opened, and Emma practically leapt from the elevator into the room.

“I’ve always wondered what your office looked like,” Emma mused, wandering around the office looking at the nick-nacks on people’s desks. Paul strolled slowly behind her, noticing that she had stopped at Charlotte’s desk. Absentmindedly, Emma’s hand drifted towards a framed picture of Charlotte, her husband Sam and their two cats. 

“This has gotta be Charlotte’s desk, right?” Emma looked up at Paul inquisitively as he picked up the photo she had been looking at. 

“Yep, that’s her husband Sam, and their cats: Cassandra and Derek.” Paul explained.

“I’m guessing they got to name a cat each?” Emma asked, her gaze shifting to the photo, in which Charlotte was holding a ginger tabby and on Sam’s shoulder sat a Persian cat. 

“You would think, but actually Charlotte named them both. The ginger cat is Derek and the other is Cassandra.” Paul clarified, pointing at each cat.

“Oh, okay.” Emma said, just as the elevator door opened revealing the woman herself: Charlotte. She was carrying enough bags of decorations to accessorise the whole building, but just underneath all the blue and white decorations was Charlotte’s classic cat sweater. 

“Hey Paul,” Charlotte began, as she made her way over to where the pair were stood, her head deep in decorations, “Sorry I’m a bit late, Sam just called me and said his shift just got extended so he wouldn’t be able to buy cat food and feed the cats when he came in, so I had to run to the store and-” 

Charlotte stopped in the middle of her rambled explanation after briefly looking up and noticing Emma. 

“Oh my goodness,” Charlotte exclaimed, “You must be Emma! It is so nice to meet you in person,” Charlotte stepped forward and hugged the barista, who returned the hug feeling slightly awkward. 

“It’s nice to meet you too, Charlotte,” Emma responded sincerely, “Paul was just telling me about Derek and Cassandra, actually.” Charlotte chuckled in response. 

“Really? They’re my pride and joy,” She sighed, her eyes glazing over slightly as she thought of her cats, before quickly snapping out of it, “Let’s get decorating, shall we?” 

As soon as Charlotte had spoken, they dug into the bags of streamers, balloons and other Mamma Mia style decorations and began to place them around the office. It took the group a little over half an hour to put them up, they found that they worked quite well together, and from what Paul could see, Emma and Charlotte were getting along famously. Emma was telling Charlotte about all the shitty customers she had served at Beanie’s and Charlotte shared stories of the office, including the time that Paul had come back from a coffee run, tripped over a wire that had been taped to the floor and dropped everyone’s orders, including the coffee he had gotten for his boss to try and sugarcoat the fact his weekly reports hadn’t been handed in on time. Once each and every decoration had been put up, the three of them stepped back to admire their handiwork.

“Looks great, guys,” Emma commented, holding her hands up for high fives. Charlotte excitedly clapped her hand with the barista’s and Paul did the same, with only a shred less enthusiasm. Moments after they’d finished decorating, the elevator door opened revealing Melissa and some of the other guests that Alice had told Paul to invite. 

“Hey guys, come on in!” Charlotte called them over to where herself, Paul and Emma were stood. Melissa introduced herself to Emma, who remembered the personal assistant from Paul’s anecdotes about his work place, she mentioned this to Melissa, causing both women to giggle with each other. Interrupting smoothly, Paul began to introduce Emma to the other guests, most of whom were a part of the amateur dramatics society Bill was also a part of. Guests continued to arrive over the next fifteen minutes until the only person they were waiting for before they had to text Alice was Ted. The decorating trio mingled with the guests who had arrived, Emma tried to keep Paul a safe distance from Bill’s theatre friends, who kept trying to include him in a very musical-centric conversation. Emma had retrieved Paul from the amateur dramatics group for a fourth time when the elevator doors opened, exposing Ted to the beginnings of the party. Knowing Emma was going to be present, Ted made a beeline for Paul, who stood around a head above the majority of the guests. 

“So Paul,” Ted greeted, causing Paul to jerk suddenly before turning around and seeing his colleague. “Are you going to officially introduce me to this upstanding member of the service industry or will I have to introduce myself?”

“How are you doing, Ted?” Emma asked, sarcastically emphasising the man’s name before Paul had a chance to speak, “I’m _Emma_ ,” She introduced herself, “In case you have forgotten, I do have a name, I’m not just the crabby one?”

“Hey,” Ted protested, “That was only before I met you _officially_ , nice to meet you, I’m Ted.”

“Dude,” Emma stated cooly, raising an eyebrow, non-verbally saying ‘are you kidding me,’ “It’s nice to meet you too.”

Ted and Emma continued to chatter with the occasional moment of bickering for a few minutes and Paul took this time to message Alice to let her know that it was time to bring her dad to the office. The ten minutes following that moment were, quite possibly, the most chaotic minutes of Paul’s life. He wasn’t sure if it was just him, but if anyone had ever tried telling amateur actors to be quiet for more than five minutes and been successful, they deserved a Nobel Peace Prize. Once all the hubbub of making sure everyone was somewhat hidden and the lights were turned off, the waiting game began. Every so often, someone started to whisper, which was promptly stopped by Emma’s firm shushing. It was only a few minutes after everyone had remained quiet that the elevator could be heard, the room buzzed with excitement as the noise of the elevator grew as it got closer, the doors opened and Bill’s voice could be heard. 

“I don’t know what kind of crisis requires me to be here on a Satu-” Bill was unable to finish his sentence as the light was flicked on by Alice and every guest leapt out from their hiding place to exclaim:

“Surprise!” Paul wished that he had taken a picture of Bill’s face when he realised that everyone had organised a party for his birthday. Bill clutched his heart and spoke incoherent thank yous in the entrance from the elevator, and Alice brought him over to Paul. 

“Happy birthday, Bill!” Paul told his friend wholeheartedly, “I hope you don’t mind, but I brought a plus one.” The tall man gestured to the petite barista who stood beside him. Paul knew that Bill would instantly know that this was Emma. 

“It’s so nice to meet you in person, Bill,” Emma addressed him, “You’ve been so kind to me when I called and waited to speak to Paul so I am glad I could contribute even a little bit to your party.”

“Emma!” Bill excitedly identified the barista, “I am so glad that you’re here, Paul talks about you non-stop.”

“He does not,” Emma laughed dismissively, “I’m sure he’s got much more interesting things to talk about other than me.”

“Okay, sure,” Bill conceded reluctantly, “but that’s only because we ask him about other stuff, if we don’t ask, it’s all about you.” Emma laughed, Bill kindly touched her shoulder and said goodbye for the moment as he went to go and talk with his other colleagues.

“Well then,” Alice spoke once her dad had left, “let’s get this party started, huh?”

It was as if that was all anyone had to say, because only a few minutes later, it seemed like the party was in full swing. Paul remained on the sidelines of the dance floor for the majority of the party, he stuck near the snack table because if you can’t eat free food at a party when can you? After Paul’s second or third helping - he hadn’t counted - he sat down on one of the office chairs that had been pushed to the side of the room and looked out at the dance floor. ABBA’s Dancing Queen was blaring from the speakers that had been kindly provided by the dramatics society, most of whom Paul had observed doing a choreographed routine in the middle of the dance floor. Paul’s eyes drifted to the edge of the floor, where he saw Emma dancing with Charlotte, Alice and Deb. He noticed that the four girls had really gotten on well, and at that exact moment, they were all dancing as if they didn’t have a care in the world. Focusing on his date, Paul couldn’t help but notice the joy on Emma’s face as she danced with Charlotte and the two younger girls, who had just performed a dance that they must have practiced at home, which caused Emma to laugh in delight as she watched them. Whilst the guffaw erupted out of Emma’s mouth, she briefly glanced in Paul’s direction. He instantly felt weird for watching them have fun whilst he was being boring and eating his weight in chips. Emma, it seemed, did not feel the same way about his actions, because she turned her attention to him and mimed gaining momentum on a lasso. She flicked her clenched fist in Paul’s direction and pretended to reel him in. Internally, Paul couldn’t help but feel this was extremely corny, but he followed along with her antics anyway, matching the timings of her make-believe tugs on the imaginary lasso. Once Paul had reached the small group of girls, he wasn’t quite sure what to do with himself. He had never really been the dancing kind, but something about Emma made him want to give it a try. So he did. 

The party continued on until the early hours of the morning, with people gradually leaving as the hours passed, until the only people left were Paul, Emma, Bill, Ted, Charlotte, Alice and Deb. The speakers that had been blasting ABBA all night long had been transported with the theatre group, so the only music playing was Charlotte’s Spotify playlist, which contained an odd mix of Taylor Swift and AC/DC, coming from her phone. Emma had begun to help Charlotte take decorations down, when she reached the three cardboard cut-outs of Meryl Streep that Paul had ordered. 

“Hey Bill,” Emma called, “Do you want to keep all these cut-outs of Meryl or do you just want one?” Bill stood up and turned from where he had been sat with Alice to face the barista. 

“I’ll just take one, thanks Emma!” Bill responded cheerily, returning to his conversation with his daughter. Moving one cut-out aside for Bill, Emma looked at the other two and pondered where the best home for them would be.

“Okay, does anyone else want a Meryl?” Emma asked, her gaze moving around the room, “Ted? Alice? Deb?”

“Sure, I’ll have one, why not?” Deb spoke, walking over to the cut-outs and lifting it under her arm, “You can never have too much Meryl Streep.” Emma smiled, watching the younger girl stroll over to her girlfriend and place Meryl beside her. 

“Final call to claim a Meryl of your own!” Emma exclaimed, “Paul! You take the last Meryl.” she pointed at her date before beckoning him over to where she stood. Paul arrived and glanced down at Emma worriedly. 

“Em, I appreciate the sentiment but I have no room in my apartment for a life-size cardboard cut-out of Meryl Streep.” He explained, frantically gesturing to the cut-out beside them.

“It’s fine, Paul,” She reassured him in a whispered voice, “We can throw her out as soon as we leave the building, I just don’t want Bill to know how much you hate Mamma Mia.”

“You’re so great,” Paul started, placing a hand on the petite woman’s shoulder. 

“I know,” Emma replied playfully, “Now go and collect all the streamers.” She leaned up to reach his face and gave him a swift peck on the cheek before sending him to the other side of the room to work on tidying the party up. The group all got to work on disassembling the party and getting the office space back to normal, ready for a day of work on Monday. Miraculously, they had managed to restore the office to its usual condition in just over an hour, and the group prepared to head home.

Just outside the building, Paul and Emma said goodbye to both Alice and Deb, with Emma giving them a group hug and making them promise to keep her posted on all the high school gossip. Then they said goodbye to Bill, who they wished a very happy birthday and Emma made sure that they would stay in touch. Once they had left, Emma turned to say goodbye to Charlotte, giving the other woman, what Paul could only imagine, was a bone-crushing hug. As Emma and Charlotte exchanged numbers and made promises to meet up as soon as possible, Paul began to say goodbye to Ted who was stood by Charlotte before Emma had interrupted. 

“See you on Monday, Ted,” Paul addressed his co-worker who was watching the two women interact before Paul had spoken to him, snapping him out of his trance. 

“I’ll see you then, Paul,” Ted answered, his gaze wandering back to Charlotte and Emma, “Hey Charlotte!” He called, after a while, “Are you giving me this ride or what?” Charlotte laughed, and the two women made their way over to where Ted and Paul were stood. 

“Of course!” Charlotte replied, patting him on the shoulder. The two of them made their way over to Charlotte’s car, shouting their goodbyes over their shoulders, leaving Paul and Emma alone in the parking lot.

“Ready to go?” Paul queried, looking to Emma as Charlotte pulled out of the lot. When Emma looked back up at him, she smiled.

“Yep, let’s go.” She suggested, before initiating the walk to the car. As they crossed the concrete plot of land, Paul felt a hand brush up against his. In a rush of confidence, Paul took Emma’s hand in his. The gesture was small, but Paul felt as though Emma’s hand was made to match his. 

The drive to Emma’s apartment was brisk, and they travelled in mostly comfortable silence, with a few intermittent conversations that fell back to the natural silence. When Paul pulled up outside of Emma’s apartment building, it felt far too soon to be saying goodbye to her. Emma made a move to begin to get out of the car before stopping herself. 

“Hey, Paul,” She spoke, breaking the silence they had managed to maintain.

“Yeah?” He responded, looking at the woman who sat in the passenger seat of his car, with admiration glinting in his eyes. 

“I wanted it to be you, you know,” Emma mumbled slightly, looking at her feet before turning and looking at Paul, with a small smile growing on her face, and he couldn't contain the smile that had begun to involuntarily take shape.

“I wanted it to be you too,” He faltered, “so, so badly.” Paul brought his hand up to reach Emma’s cheek, his fingers delicately dancing upon her skin. She leaned into his touch, and looked into his eyes before she leaned forward and kissed him. Paul wasn’t sure what time it was or how long the kiss went on for, but he didn’t want it to stop. In that moment, Paul felt that everything had fallen into place, that the missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle had been found and everything finally made sense.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and that’s the end! (i think???) i might write an epilogue, but that could also be two months in the making so we’ll see!
> 
> anyway, i hope you enjoyed this fic half as much as i enjoyed writing it! 
> 
> apologies if the ending is a bit cheesy, i am a bit cheesy so that’s just how i’m doing things :)


End file.
